Exclusive: Ryan Murphy Tells Us Who’s Staying on Glee

Who’s graduating up and out of Glee? To hear the Internet tell it, nearly everyone.

Jane Lynch said she got emotional filming her last scene with Dianna Agron, whose character Quinn is Yale-bound, because “it was like saying goodbye” to the actress. Amber Riley tweeted that she had just closed a chapter in her life, “the only thing I’ve known for three years. I’m going to miss the whole Glee family … ” Meanwhile, Mark Salling’s Puck wants to clean pools in California and Naya Rivera’s Santana looks headed for Kentucky on a cheerleading scholarship — and yet, we already know the show will take place in New York and Lima, Ohio.

Are all McKinley seniors not named Rachel, Kurt, or Finn off the show? Series boss Ryan Murphy says absolutely not.

“A lot of people have been writing Dianna’s off the show, Amber’s off the show — they’re not off the show,” Murphy told Vulture. “I think Amber was talking about that bittersweet feeling of, ‘I’ll never be in the choir room with that exact group of people.’ At least that’s what she told me … When I read that [tweet,] I said, ‘I think people will misconstrue that.’ She’s excited about where her character is going. They all are. I wanted to do the right thing by all of them.”

“We had a meeting, and you know we’ve become like a family, and I said to them, ‘Anybody who wants to stay on the show will stay on the show,’” he said. To be clear, that includes McKinley staff played by Matthew Morrison, Jane Lynch, and Jayma Mays. “They’re all coming back,” Murphy continued. “Anyone who is a regular is coming back. Everyone said yes.”

At the same time, Murphy isn’t specifying how long “coming back” means for certain characters. “It doesn’t mean everyone will be doing 22 episodes, but everyone wants to stay in our family and our world,’” he said. “I wanted to make sure those actors know that if they want to have a home, they have a home. If they want to explore new and different things while also having a home, that is also an option.”

Tuesday’s season finale will probably explain how some of these characters will stay in the picture after getting their diplomas, and Murphy says the cast has been very into what he’s revealed so far. “When I told them all what the next season was, I think they all liked it because they all get to grow and be back to struggling. ‘Where is my place in the world?’ … For the most part, I’ve had really good talks with all the actors, and what I want to do they have loved. Cory Monteith was like, ‘I love that Finn gets to do that. That’s awesome.’”